Guardian of the Gila
PERCHED IN A STEEL LOOKOUT tower on Mogollon Baldy, Sara Irving has kept eyes on the Gila Wilderness for 42 summers. A hike along the Continental Divide Trail in 1980 prompted her to apply for a…
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Quick Facts about the Gila Wilderness
755,000. Acres of the Gila National Forest administratively labeled as wilderness on June 3, 1924 1933. Year the original wilderness area was divided into the Gila and Aldo Leopold wildernesses, which…
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The History of the Gila Cliff Dwellings
“THIS WHOLE MOUNTAIN VALLEY wasn’t some wilderness nobody visited,” says Dana Dick, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument’s lead interpretive park ranger. “It was home to people. There’s evidence of…
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Meet Conservationist Luke Koenig
LUKE KOENIG’S CIRCUITOUS ROUTE from Maryland to Silver City included stops in several western states. While working with Wild Arizona, he regularly tuned in to the Gila Mimbres Community Radio Station…
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Explore the Gila Wilderness in These Books
First and Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100, edited by Elizabeth High-tower Allen (Torrey House Press, 2022) Local artists, conservationists, and writers including Michael P. Berman, Martha Schumann…
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The Gila Wilderness At 100
LESS THAN FIVE MILES into the nation’s first designated wilderness area, I scan the muddy banks of New Mexico’s last free-flowing river for animal tracks, wondering who else is here. Low sunlight…
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Feel at Ho-Ho-Home in Cloudcroft
MY DAUGHTER, WILLA, STANDS ON her tippy-toes, looking west from The Lodge at Cloudcroft’s copper-topped tower. From this 9,000-foot perch, light from the setting sun gets caught in dust over White…
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Self-Care Tips for Desert Dwellers
“REFLEXOLOGY IS THE CLOSEST THING TO MAGIC,” says Cheri Crane. At her Datura Therapeutic Day Spa in downtown Silver City, for the past 22 years, Crane has applied what a Japanese master taught her…
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Shop Unique Gifts at Power and Light Press
IF YOU’RE TEMPTED TO PURCHASE a souvenir depicting a saguaro cactus in the Land of Enchantment, make it a tote proclaiming the truth: There are no saguaros in New Mexico. Part of a new set of…
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How to Preserve the Dark Skies
VALLE DE ORO NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE is an oasis just seven miles south of Albuquerque. The former 570-acre farm, the first urban wildlife refuge in the Southwest, also ranks as an Urban Night Sky…
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